On Friday, April 05, 1996 5:33 AM, Michael Dillon[SMTP:michael@memra.com] wrote: @On Fri, 5 Apr 1996, Tim Salo wrote: @ @> It would appear that there may also be a strong argument that the @> tremendous proliferation of [small] ISPs is a significant contributor @> to the growth of the size of the Internet routing tables. @> @> Perhaps, the [anticipated] consolidation of ISPs will be a significant @> event in the efforts to control routing table size. @ @There are other analysts (myself among them) who anticipate the number of @North Amercan ISP's to grow by a third this year from around 2,000 to @around 3,000. Yes, there is some consolidation, but this is very little @in relation to the entry of new ISP's into the market. As long as the @Internet is growing exponentially, there will be room for new entrants @and we will not be seeing an absolute decline in the number of ISP's. @ Has anyone analyzed what these ISPs will be doing? Will most be dial-up providers? Will ISPs gravitate to leased line sales as dial-up becomes a commodity? Will some specialize only in co-located server farms? How about the growing need for "gateway" services? Will many of these new ISPs only serve other ISPs? Have you included organizations that may not currently appear to be ISPs but in reality will be ISPs? (Churches, schools, private networks, etc.) Have we seen the first round of "cash out Kids" or "selling up and out"? (It took several years for that to occur in PCs and Software) @Think exponentially, plan accordingly ;-) @ Yes, think exponentially, plan accordingly, and act globally...;-) @In other words, CIDR, PIER, and RFC1918.... @ @Michael Dillon Voice: +1-604-546-8022 No matter what happens Michael, keep in mind that the entire Internet as you know it can fit in (Galaxy Zero, StarGate Zero) or (G:0,S:0)....:-) -- Jim Fleming UNETY Systems, Inc. Naperville, IL 60563 e-mail: JimFleming@unety.net